Rumor has it that Trek will be releasing a carbon Stache here shortly, but it looks like there are quite a few companies that have beaten them to the punch.
theres something I like about these On One carbon frames, unusual as nice as carbon is i'm not really a fan but this is somethin else
I think its a very good point though, even if it was unintentional.
Lets think about it....
A steel irreplaceable hanger might fail about 1 time out of 100 times that an impact is enough to cause an equivalent aluminum replaceable hanger to fail. This will end up costing about 100 bucks to have a machinist/welder make you a new one. How many derailleurs do you go through in steel scenario, in the time that 100 aluminum hangers need to be replaced? Maybe 50? So that's about 2500 dollars in derailleurs, assuming a 50 dollar derailleur over the life of a steel frame, totaling $2600 over the time period? With aluminum you'd pay about $15 bucks a hanger for 100 hangers, making $1500 bucks, and with aluminum replaceable hangers, you might only go through 25 derailleurs over that time period, (since the aluminum hanger can actually save a derailleur from being destroyed in some circumstances), costing a smaller additional $1250. So $2600 over the lifetime for steel vs $2250 for aluminum, based on back of the envelope calculations. I'm gonna call it a draw. Maybe slight edge to aluminum replaceable, but how many steel frames have aluminum hangers in the first place?
I'd call it a characteristic of steel bikes and move on.
Personally, I'd give the edge to steel though, because 15 years from now if your bike is still alive, welders will still exist whereas your bike's derailleur hanger might not be findable in stores or on the internet, and making new custom derailleur hangers with your local machinist more than once would be a real loss on a frame that 15 years from now is only going to be worth restoring one time.
errr ummmm? Ok some great points about the future existence of replaceble d/hangers scary thought, tho I may not be riding by then?
Man I didn't understand any of that. Maybe it's too early for me